The Bab el-Mandeb Problem

World Brief FP’s flagship daily , catching you up on 24 hours of news in five minutes. Houthi control of a Red Sea port brings Tehran closer to claiming another critical waterway. An illustration of Alexandra Sharp, World Brief writer Alexandra Sharp , the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy. The navigation bridge of a sunken vessel is all that is seen at the surface of the water in the Port of Mokha. A sunken vessel in the Port of Mokha the day after a Houthi rebel attack on the Yemeni city on Aug. 10. Khaled Ziad/AFP via September 10, 2026, PM Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the fight for control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, record-high global temperatures, and Ukraine’s request for more foreign aid. The Fall of Mokha Houthi rebels in Yemen seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha on Thursday in their quest to eventually control the vital Bab el-Mandeb strait. The sweeping ground offensive—which pushed out forces allied with the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized Yemeni government—raised concerns that the two sides’ fragile 2022 truce may officially be over and that Yemen has returned to all-out war. Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the fight for control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, record-high global temperatures, and Ukraine’s request for more foreign aid. The Fall of Mokha Houthi rebels in Yemen seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha on Thursday in their quest to eventually control the vital Bab el-Mandeb strait. The sweeping ground offensive—which pushed out forces allied with the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized Yemeni government—raised concerns that the two sides’ fragile 2022 truce may officially be over and that Yemen has returned to all-out war. Renewed fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni forces erupted in July, after the Saudi-led military coalition tried to prevent a plane bringing Houthis back from Tehran from landing at Sanaa International Airport. Since then, the two sides have exchanged heavy fire, including a Saudi attack on a Houthi-run prison on Monday, which killed at least 23 people, and a Houthi operation across Saudi Arabia that same day, which injured more than 70 people. Fierce battles around Mokha in recent days have particularly drawn the international community’s attention, as many worry that Houthi control of the port brings Iran one step closer to claiming another critical waterway. For months, Iranian forces have effectively stopped most commercial traffic from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas previously passed.